The aims of the research are two-fold. (1) One objective is to closely identify the labor and consumption patterns of a sample of Turkmen households in different rural modes of production. (2) The second goal of the study is to determine how such patterns are reflected in family size, actual family strategies affecting fertility and to see how these are correlated with variation in income, agricultural yield and labor inputs of differing modes of production. One hypothesis being investigated is that groups from one culturally defined population occupying different environmental zones and engaging in different patterns of economic activity will experience different household labor demands. It is expected that local micro-populations with lower domestic demands, or where productivity is not greatly responsive to labor inputs such as in mechanized agriculture, will experience lower fertility. Data needed to test this and other hypotheses are being analyzed. The study should contribute to more accurate interpretation of population data from rural and tribal populations, including a better understanding of the relationship between family size, fertility and variations in the productivity of rural labor.